


Rule One

by clarkjoekent



Series: Sakumo Week 2020 [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Canonical Character Death, Sakumo Week, all sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:21:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26313322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clarkjoekent/pseuds/clarkjoekent
Summary: Sakumo realizes not all rules are important when lives are in danger.Sakumo Week Day 6Prompt: Rules
Series: Sakumo Week 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1904620
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10
Collections: Sakumo Week 2020





	Rule One

**Author's Note:**

> Way to finish off the week with some angst :)

"Rule One: The mission comes first." Sakumo remembered his sensei drilling that into his head on day one of the Academy. He glanced around the classroom and watched all of his friends seem disinterested.

Now he was looking at all of his fallen friends around him and wondering why that rule was so important. They followed each step exactly. They were ready.

Why is this stupid scroll more important than his comrades?

"Sakumo!" Shikakuro threw a kunai in his direction, the last weapon they had.

He knew this whole mission was a failure. They had to go back. Someone set them up.

He grabbed the knife and chased after the enemy. He needed to give them time to escape.

He managed to get the enemy far away but when he returned only three of his team was left standing.

"Where are they?" Shikakuro winced, his side was bleeding. He was pale and leaning against a tree. His wife was dead, he had covered her body with his blanket. Sakumo felt ill.

"They are gone but we didn't get what we needed." Sakumo couldn't catch the shinobi that had the scroll.

"Fuck. This mission was off from the start." Shikakuro was out of breath already, the blood was pouring from his wound. Sakumo helped the Nara onto the ground and he pulled his hand away. Life threatening. Their medic was dead.

Ryuku and Genki were unconscious. Sakumo put pressure on the wound but he felt the Nara's heartbeat slow.

"Shikakuro, we need to get you out of here and back home to your son." Sakumo looked around for a cloth to wrap around his wound. He had to stop the bleeding.

"Take them home."

"No, not without you." Sakumo hated the idea of leaving anyone behind.

"Sakumo." The Nara coughed, spraying blood. He winced and leaned back. "The shinobi are coming back, I know you feel their chakra. Go. Take them with you and go home."

"Can't abandon a mission, can't abandon a friend, what can I do?" The Hatake was livid.

"The shinobi life is full of dead ends. We were taught to die for the village." Shikakuro was closing his eyes. "Go."

Sakumo stood up and went over to his unconscious teammates. He was able to wake them both up using a vial in the medic's bag. He pulled them up and told them to run towards home. They looked around at the carnage and then booked it.

Shikakuro had passed by the time Sakumo could do anything. He grabbed the Nara's pelt that was on the forest floor, for his son, and ran away just in time. The enemy nin was hot on their trail.

"Rule One: The mission comes first." As if Sakumo wasn't tired of hearing it. Hiruzen laid into him.

"You should've gotten the scroll, it was imperative that we gain the knowledge in that scroll. Blah, Blah, Blah." Sakumo was over it. He saw his friends die for the last time.

"We were ambushed, someone told them where we would be and who was on the mission. It was death from the start." Sakumo stood his ground.

"Then death should've been the outcome." Hiruzen slammed his fist on his desk. "You are suspended until we finish the investigation."

Sakumo was thrown out of the office like he was a criminal.

The men who he saved turned on him faster than an enemy in the T and I cell. They didn't even need a bribe.

He had to look in his son's eyes and tell him why the mission went bad.

"Rule One: The mission comes first." Kakashi stated word for word.

"Sometimes son, lives should come first."

"The Hokage made the rules. He wouldn't be the Hokage if he didn't care." Kakashi waved him off.

Hiruzen never reinstated him and he was turned into an example. Kakashi couldn't look at him in his eyes. He felt weak and tired.

He missed his teammates. The sacrifice was in vain. He should've died on that mission. Alongside his friends.

Now he's dying on the floor of his kitchen from a self inflicted tanto wound.

"Rule One: The mission comes first."


End file.
